﻿Nawaz, Modi unlikely to meet in Kathmandu: Sartaj Aziz

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Mohammad Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi are unlikely to meet on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit.

The Prime Minister’s senior aide, Sartaj Aziz, on his arrival at Kathmandu clarified that there were no plan for Nawaz-Modi bilateral meeting at the sidelines of the SAARC Summit.

He, however, hinted that a meeting between the two leaders could be arranged if Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj made a request. “It was up to India to have ‘informal talks’ with Pakistan”, Sartaj Aziz added.

There have been speculations about the possibility of a meeting between the two leaders on the sidelines of the SAARC Summit in the backdrop of simmering border tensions between the two nuclear powers.

Although the two nuclear-armed neighbours have repeatedly insisted that neither country has shown any interest in the bilateral meeting, however an interaction between Nawaz and Modi could not be ruled out.

The Foreign Affairs Ministry has also so far been silent whether a meeting could take place between the two leaders at the sidelines of the SAARC Summit.